Judge backs airport protestors

PLANS for airport expansion in the South East of England were thrown into confusion today after a successful challenge in the High Court.

A judge ruled Government plans for additional runways at Stansted in Essex and Heathrow were lawful, but allowed a challenge by Essex residents and local authorities who were given a say over where the Stansted runway should go and how much land it uses up. There must also be further consultations over expansion at Luton Airport.

Both protestors and the Government claimed a victory.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said: 'I am pleased that the High Court has upheld the case for two additional runways in the south east of England at Heathrow and Stansted and rejected calls for that part of the Air Transport White Paper to be quashed.'

But a statement issued on Mr Darling's behalf added: 'The Secretary of State also accepts that, in the light of the judgment, the issue of the choice of runway option and the balance between capacity and environmental issues at Stansted will need to be struck in the planning system.'

The Government does not intend the appeal against the rulings.

The Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) group said this was the first time that the High Court had allowed a judicial review challenge to a Government White Paper.

It said that although today's judgment stopped short of overturning the 'controversial' airports policy, it had delivered 'a major setback to BAA's ambition to build a second runway at Stansted by 2011-12'.

SSE said alternative options for a smaller-scale second runway at Stansted must now be put back into play. Chairman Peter Sanders described the decision as 'a vindication of what we have said all along about the White Paper being fundamentally flawed and an important milestone in our battle to prevent BAA from ever building a second runway at Stansted'.

He went on: 'However the High Court decision has the perverse effect of creating even more uncertainty for the local community in the foreseeable future.

'Fairness demands that the Government should now completely withdraw its support for major expansion at Stansted and that BAA should also do the decent thing and publicly announce that it will not be proceeding with its plans for a second runway.

'We will be exploring every avenue for taking today's judgment even further, including examining the scope for appeal against certain aspects of the court decision which still leave the threat of a second runway, in some shape or form, hanging over us.'

Mr Sanders said: 'It's complete muddle and confusion and all because the Government and BAA believed they could railroad through these half-baked proposals without proper regard for the legal procedure and without proper regard for the local community.'

SSE campaign director Carol Barbone said: 'BAA and the Government now face the problem of what to do next. We very much hope they will do the decent thing and abandon all plans for a second runway at Stansted but if they stubbornly choose to continue, they must know that we too will continue to thwart these outrageous expansion plans at every turn.'

Brian Ross, SSE's economics adviser, said: 'All the architects, planners and design engineers appointed by BAA last year, can now put down their pencils and go off on a very, very long holiday.'

Airport operator BAA, which runs Stansted airport, welcomed the outcome of the judicial review. BAA chief executive Mike Clasper said: 'This judgment allows BAA to press ahead with exploring ways to achieve better use of Heathrow's existing two runways, planning a new runway at Stansted, and examining the feasibility of a third runway at Heathrow.

'BAA remains committed to delivering the airport capacity the country needs. We are confident of the commercial viability of a second Stansted runway and I'm delighted that the court has thrown out that aspect of the legal challenge. We will continue to press on with the Stansted runway project.'

BAA added that the judgment did, however, find that the Government was too prescriptive in setting the precise position of the second runway at Stansted, making it clear Government policy should not have sought to identify the precise location of the runway.

Terry Morgan, managing director of Stansted Airport, said: 'We are looking at runway options with a view to identifying our proposed scheme this summer. We will share this with the local community, our airline customers and others, with the aim of submitting our planning application in spring 2006.'

Expansion at Heathrow and Stansted has upset many local people who fear for their quality of life. Stansted, Luton and Heathrow are all affected. Residents' groups formed a coalition with the London boroughs of Wandsworth and Hillingdon to fight proposals contained in the Government's 2003 Aviation White Paper, published by Mr Darling.

Local authorities in Herts and North Essex also joined in the first ever High Court challenge to a White Paper. The proposals include another runway at Stansted by 2011-12 followed by a short, third, runway at Heathrow.

These proposals, plus expansion at other airports, are intended to accommodate a massive increase in air traffic by 2030.